Rain
by koukacs
Summary: Haruhiko had accepted a job in the University of Kyoto when Sora was still a baby. Toshiko supported him the best she could. But his decision to go was not a professional one. He was running from his loss, to try to save himself. To try to forget about the rain.
1. Absence

**Absence**

"Hey, Sora-chan." He whispered to the baby sleeping in the crib. "It's your Dad… I'm going to be away for a while." The man continued. "I took a job in Kyoto. I had to… when you grow up…"

What was he going to say? That she would understand when she was older? But he did not understand it himself. He already had a good position in the University of Tokyo, the city where his wife taught Ikebana, a place where he had lived for so long and where he had made happy memories.

But all those happy memories had been tainted blue. A dark blue that dragged the world down and suffocated everything. If he stayed in that place, if he stayed in that University, all remaining life would be sucked from him.

He let a tear escape as he understood how everything would never be the same. Tokyo would no longer be the place where he fell in love or the place where he became a father.

It was now the place where she died. Everywhere he glanced, he would not notice anything but her absence. He could not bear to look at anything that reminded him of her. Every memory of her smile was a stab in his heart.

"Your father is a coward, Sora-chan." He confessed.

"Don't say that." His wife's gentle voice said behind him. As he felt Toshiko's hand squeezing his right shoulder in a comforting way, the man could feel guilt piercing his insides.

"I'm abandoning you two, Toshiko-san." His voice was so low that he wondered if his wife could hear him.

"Don't be silly, Haruhiko-san." Toshiko reprehended in a calm voice. "We're not the first couple to live apart because of each other's jobs. You're going to visit us and we will visit you."

"You know why I'm running away." Haruhiko cut her off. "Please, don't act as if it's anything more than cowardice."

"It's not cowardice to run to save yourself." Toshiko told him.

"I'm abandoning my own blood… I'm abandoning you…" He searched for her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. Toshiko was so warm. Or was he the one who was cold?

"Don't underestimate mothers, Haruhiko-san." She told him. "It takes more than your absence to break one's spirit."

The man felt her hand tremble. Why did she always have to be the strong one?

"Take care of yourself, my love." Toshiko added. "We're going to be fine."

That night, when he left, Haruhiko kissed his wife and made her promise to call him whenever she needed. The man should know that she would not do it. He insisted in going to the train station alone, carrying a suitcase. The rest of his belongings would go to his new apartment later.

He looked up at the night sky. There was no sign of clouds.

No rain to comfort him.

* * *

This story is for the drabblechap competition of the Forum Digimon Fanfiction challenges.


	2. Ame

**Ame**

She was born during a storm, when Haruhiko was five years old. There was also a French couple in the hospital that day, bringing to the world another baby girl.

Once the visits were allowed, Haruhiko entered his mother's room accompanied by his father. The woman had brown hair, like the older child, but longer and brighter. His little sister had a few strings of auburn hair and was wrapped in a purple blanket.

"Hey, daughter!" His father, a bearded middle-aged redhead, had begun to cry the moment he saw the baby.

"Dear, do you want to hold Ame-chan?" The woman asked.

"Ame?" Haruhiko inquired.

"It's a rainy day, what's more appropriate than to call her 'Rain'?" The mother chuckled.

"Hello, Ame-chan!" The father greeted, gently taking his daughter into his arms. "You're so beautiful and I love you so much already!"

"Can I see her?" The little boy asked, getting on his tiptoes while grabbing his father's pants. The man sat on an arm-chair close to the woman's bed and invited his son to take a closer look. Excited, Haruhiko approached the baby and touched one of her tiny hands.

Ame, who had kept her eyes closed until that moment, opened them and looked at her brother. Then, she held one of his fingers and squeezed it.

Haruhiko's felt his heart racing as an irresistible smile made its way to his face.

"Hi, Ame! I'm your big brother, Haruhiko." The boy introduced himself.

The Fuyokawa family returned home later that day. The woman accommodated the baby in a crib next to the couple's futons and sang a lullaby that she had learned from her mother. She called the boy to pay attention to it, because one day he would sing that song to his children.

Haruhiko obeyed, putting his head on his mother's lap and listening to her beautiful voice. The father also stopped what he was doing and came to hear his wife. The family would indulge in that routine for almost a year.

Then, one day, a sudden sickness hit the woman and took her away from their lives.

The father vowed that he would take care of both his children and never allowed himself to cry in front of them.

After returning from his mother's funeral, Haruhiko saw his father placing the crying Ame in her crib and caressing her head. The man began to sing the lullaby his wife used to sing every day. His voice was not nearly as beautiful as hers but it was enough to calm the baby down.

Haruhiko went to his sister and held one of her hands, squeezing it gently.

"I'm going to look after you." He promised. "Dad and I will always take care of you. You have nothing to fear."

That night, a light rain fell. Its sound lulled both children and gave them peaceful dreams. The father stayed awake, looking at the raindrops through the window.

"I miss you." He whispered to the sky.


	3. Mr Raindrop

**Mr. Raindrop**

Ame was four years old when their father made her that clown doll, which had blue hair, white and blue clothes and drawings of water drops on each cheek. Mr. Fuyokawa gave her the toy, saying it'd be her companion for her entire life.

Haruhiko liked to watch his little sister playing with the doll, which she named Mr. Raindrop. Ame dragged it to wherever she went. When the family visited the countryside, she liked to take the toy to open fields and high hills, watching the wind bringing the clouds. There were times when those winds brought storms.

She had always been fascinated by lightening.

The boy believed that his sister would eventually grow tired of Mr. Raindrop but that never happened. It accompanied her through childhood and adolescence, and even after she went to the University to study Physics.

Ame had Mr. Raindrop accompanying her also during the funeral of their father.

Haruhiko wondered if she would place the doll over the man's grave but that never happened. Once they were left alone in the cemetery, he decided to ask her:

"Why do you still cling to this toy?"

Ame smiled sadly before replying:

"It was a gift of love from a parent to a child."

"But our father is gone now." Haruhiko commented.

"He will never be for me." She said back, seriously.

"Then, you intend to hold onto that doll until you're a wrinkly old lady?" He inquired.

"No, of course not." Ame replied, giggling. "I'll have it passed down by then."

"Passed down?"

Haruhiko sometimes missed the obvious but Ame never minded that. She looked into his eyes and smiled brightly.

"As I said, it's a gift of love from a parent to a child." She repeated. "One day, I'd like my son or daughter to have it."

"You're only 21! You're way too young to be thinking about that!" Haruhiko scolded her, flustered. Ame laughed as she always did when he showed her that face.

She had never showed interest in anyone, preferring to stick to her studies. Ame had always been a nerdy girl in love with science; Haruhiko believed she would never feel romantic attraction towards anyone.

Then, one day, when they were both professors in the same University, she went to her brother's private classroom with a man around her age. Contrasting to her long vivid red hair and light brown eyes, the other person had a rather plain appearance. He was slightly shorter than the woman, had black eyes and short spiky hair.

"This is Yukimura Shunsui, a professor from the Mathematics department." She introduced. "Shunsui-kun, this is my brother, Fuyokawa Haruhiko."

"It's nice to meet you, Haruhiko-san." The other greeted, politely.

"Is he a friend of yours?" The brother asked, feeling his heart getting heavy.

"Not exactly." Ame denied, smirking. "He is my boyfriend."

Never before in Haruhiko's life had a stranger caused such a bad first impression to him.


End file.
